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Broadmoor Hospital Sirens Wiki
Welcome to the Broadmoor Hospital Sirens Wiki This Wiki is dedicated to the Escape Sirens used by Broadmoor Hospital, UK. The wiki contains information on the condition of the sirens and their locations, and also the history & future plans for Broadmoor's sirens. Removal of the sirens began in 2018. This wiki serves to remind everyone of a part of obscure British history that will soon be a bygone era. We want to showcase this interesting, rare part of history that would likely otherwise be forgotten. NOTE: '''This is ''NOT ''a wiki about Broadmoor Hospital. This wiki is solely focused on Broadmoor's Escape Sirens. A brief (and edited) Wikipedia description of Broadmoor Hospital is contained below and a link to the main page attached. More information about Broadmoor Hospital can be found there. NEW! - Carstairs "State Hospital" Sirens Guide! The State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital near the village of '''Carstairs, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Like Broadmoor, it uses a network of Sirens to warn locals of an escape. The network is made up of 9 sirens - 7 Klaxon CS8's, 1 Klaxon GP12 and an unknown sekomak 8 siren. [https://broadmoor-hospital-sirens.fandom.com/wiki/Carstairs_Hospital_Sirens CLICK HERE] Broadmoor Siren Removal: The process of removing Broadmoor's siren has now begun, as of 2018. As new information about removed sirens comes in, we will update this Wiki in accordance with it. The following sirens are confirmed to have been removed: * Siren A - Bracknell - Bracknell Train Station * Siren B - Wokingham - Shell Petrol Station * Siren C - Wokingham - Holt Lane * Siren D - Finchampstead - Burnmoor Meadow * Siren E - Crowthorne - Crowthorne Train Station * Siren H - Sandhurst - Lambourne Close * Siren I - Sandhurst - School * Siren K - Camberley Car Park * Siren L - Bagshot - Surrey Highways Depot NOTE: This list is only the sirens that have been fully demolished. There are some that are still in place, but do not work. Plus, as Sirens J and K are practically inaccessible, it is difficult to know if they still exist or not. Siren Locations Click Here to find the locations of the sirens: http://broadmoor-hospital-sirens.wikia.com/wiki/Siren_Locations CLICK HERE FOR VIDEOS: http://broadmoor-hospital-sirens.wikia.com/wiki/Videos?venotify=created Broadmoor (from Wikipedia) B'roadmoor Hospital' is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton. The Broadmoor complex houses about 210 patients, all of whom are men since the female service closed with most of the women moving to a new service in Southall in September 2007, a few moving to the national high secure service for women at Rampton and a few elsewhere. At any one time there are also approximately 36 patients on trial leave at other units. Most of the patients there suffer from severe mental illness; many also have personality disorders. Most have either been convicted of serious crimes, or been found unfit to plead in a trial for such crimes. The average stay for the total population is about six years, but this figure is skewed by some patients who have stayed for over 30 years; most patients stay for considerably less than six years. More information on Broadmoor can be found on Wikipedia. What exactly are/were the sirens for? Our Story begins in 1952. John Straffen was a Serial Killer, who was the longest serving prisoner in British legal history. Straffen killed two young girls in the summer of 1951. He was found to be unfit to plead and committed to Broadmoor Hospital; during a brief escape in 1952, he killed again. This time, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Reprieved because of his mental state, he had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, and he remained in prison until his death more than 55 years later. The escape and subsequent murder highlighted the need for a way for the hospital to alert the general public in the vent of an escape. Remember, the hospital is home to some of the UK's most dangerous men, and in the early 50's, it was not possible to alert people by way of Text-messaging or TV Broadcasts like we can int he 21st century. The hospital decided that the best solution was to set up an alarm system, which could be activated to alert people in the vicinity of the hospital (located in Crowthorne) and the bordering & nearby towns of Sandhurst, Wokingham, Bracknell and Bagshot, when any potentially dangerous patient escapes. The network consisted of 13 Sirens (all of which were Klaxon CS8's). The locations of all 13 sirens are on this wiki. The sirens used two different alerts (controlled by dampers) to produce an "ESCAPE" tone and an "ALL CLEAR" tone. When a patient escapes the hospital, the "ESCAPE" tone sounded for 20 Minutes to allow enough time for people to hear the alert and take action. The sound used is an alternating Hi-Lo signal, which is produced by using the dampers on the sides of the siren. The "ALL CLEAR" tone is a single tone, during which both dampers remain open. An online video by YouTube user mrmattandmrchay can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzW3G-XUFHw. The last time these sirens were used in an actual emergency situation was in 1993. In 2014, the Bracknell siren was activated accidentally during an electrical storm (fortunately on the All Clear tone). The Broadmoor Sirens were tested weekly at 10AM every Monday (though a few sirens did not work in later years). The test began with the "ESCAPE" tone being sounded for 2 minutes, followed by a short break during which the sirens would wind down. This was immediately followed by the "ALL CLEAR" tone which was sounded for a further 2 minutes. One this had been done, the sirens wind down and the test was officially over. In some rare cases, the tones would be switched during a test, with the All-Clear sounding first, followed by the Escape. In a real situation the "ESCAPE" tone would be sounded for 20 minutes. Schools within the vicinity of Broadmoor and the Siren network are required to have and practice protocols for an escape situation. An example of one from Owlsmoor School can be found here: http://www.owlsmoorprimary.com/attachments/download.asp?file=199&type=pdf. Despite the removal of the sirens, schools still maintain protocols for an escape, in the unlikely event that an escape ever happens. NOT "air-raid" sirens! Many people are under the false impression that the 13 Klaxon CS8 Sirens were recycled Air-Raid sirens or that they were used during the cold war. Neither of these facts are true. The sirens were purpose-built for Broadmoor Hospital, and have only been used for this purpose. You can tell that this is the case, as these sirens are fitted with Dampers to allow for production of the Hi-Lo sound. This was required, as the standard "alternate wail" tone that most people associate sirens with was exclusively for air-raids only. Other siren systems could not use, as using the same sound an an air-raid siren would cause confusion over the message being broadcasts via the sirens. Sirens from WWII and beyond were not fitted with these dampers. Broadmoor and The State Hospital in Carstairs are to this day the only known users of the Klaxon CS8, which was designed specifically for the job of producing these Hi-Lo sounds. The End of the Broadmoor Sirens The last time the Broadmoor Sirens were activated because of an escape was in 1991, although they were activated in 1993 because of an attack at the hospital. Since that time there has been significant investment in improving security at the hospital including the installation of a second perimeter fence and additional alarm and control systems. This is on top of regular renovations of the buildings and updates to technological systems. Wear & tear, poor maintenance and neglect has caused some of the sirens to develop faults, while others do not work at all. Plans were initially drawn up to remove 7 of the 13 sirens, and replace the remaining 6 with new ones. The current sirens have a range of 2 miles, and the furthest one is located 7.1 miles away from the hospital. The plan was to use new sirens that had a range of up to 5 miles. Despite the increased range, many local residents disliked the plan to decrease the number of sirens, saying that they feel safer with sirens in their area, so this plan was scrapped. Since then, Broadmoor has made a new plan to decommission all of the sirens and install a new siren within the facility when the perimeter fence is realigned in 2018. This plan has now been put into action, and over the course of 2018, the 13 sirens will be gradually retired. The New Broadmoor Siren It has been confirmed that a new siren will be installed within the new facility and will be 'silent' tested on a Monday morning. The new siren will be a Comtel CS siren From Greece Comtel’s Website: www.comtel.gr (branded as Klaxon) electronic siren and have also released the new 'Escape' and 'All Clear' tones. Credits PEOPLE: * Alex Ellis - Creator of the Wiki, it's pages and author of all the text. * Matt Ward (mrmattandmrchay) - Videos, Photos and Maps. Also provided some info on working status of some of the sirens. * Unknown Contributor - Photo of the siren at Sandhurst Military Academy. * AutoUnder - Collected information about the new Broadmoor siren. SOFTWARE: * Google Maps * Adobe Photoshop * MS PowerPoint INFORMATION: * Wikipedia * Sandhurst School * Broadmoor Hospital * MANY news articles, videos & interviews * Matt Ward (mrmattandmrchay) Latest activity Category:Browse